Breathe Again
by KingOfMyHeart
Summary: "She never had been one to smile... and yet neither was he. As the "green-haired freak" had put it- it seemed as if they were made to be together. All she had to work out, was how to break into his shell..." A Splatalot fic, because I can! Has three OC's and I've mixed up the pairings a little compared to what everyone else seems to do XD Possibly some fluffy bits later on...
1. Chapter 1

**Breathe Again- **

Splatalot Fan-fiction

**Hello everyone! :D**

**Welcome to this- a Splatalot fic, because I can! **

**As a prior warning it does contain three OC's, Thorne's anger issues, Kook's pranks, Gildar being vain etc...etc...**

**And I've mixed up the pairings a little compared to what everyone else seems to do on here XD Possibly some fluffy/romantic bits later on...we'll see if I can get that far first and if anyone even reads the damn thing!**

**Oh and as one last request- if you do read this, please be ready to persist and kick me to write more chapters. I can be a tad lazy with my writing... so I might need a few slaps to keep me going XD**

**Anyway, enjoy this first chapter! Please review :D**

**~KingOfMyHeart~**

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**Chapter 1**

That day in the castle had begun- well...- just like any other really. The defenders were defending, the attackers were attacking- just your average day in Castle Splat.

It was mid-fall- meaning the defenders had.. _mixed_ views about the weather.

Faetal loved autumn- it made the leaves such beautiful colours.

Ballista loved the wind in her hair- the same wind that whipped the leaves into a frenzy and sent them scattering like birds.

It was the same wind that Gildar hated- apparently it distracted him from staring into his mirror and meant he always had to spend twice as long conditioning to make perfect sure that his luxurious hair wouldn't become knotted and windswept. (Believe me, you wouldn't want to be in charge of the castles toiletry finances...)

Kook loved the random, disorganised piles of leaves that the wind left in its wake. It meant he could annoy the others by dolphin diving into various piles of them and send them drifting over the recently swept courtyard and stockade... (Though it could cause some problems with his... fire snapping abilities...)

Tinkor enjoyed fall. It meant that he could work on his inventions without getting overheated and... more greasy than usual. This time of year at least he was guaranteed to be let back inside the castle at night without taking a bath...

Crocness, Vane and Skabb didn't appear to be affected by the change in season. Crocness could still swim in the moat, Skabb could still smash things- including attackers- and Vane successfully managed to eat the defenders month's supply of food in a week. No change there..

And the Blue defenders?

Knightriss felt like the year was vanishing too fast, Madeva had another cold and no one really knew how Shaiden felt...

And Thorne- well... Thorne hates every season.

Today, it just so happened to be Thorne, Kook and Shaiden defending the moat.

Shaiden was on Splatzooka, Thorne on vaporisers and Kook was on the Aqualiser.

None of them had much to say at all- there was a lingering awkwardness between Kook and Shaiden over the whole "dancing" issue, and Kook had already pushed the blue streaked alchemist to the edge of utter rampage this morning alone.

No one wanted to push things any further. So they kept quiet- besides the odd passing insult to the unfortunate attacker making their way around the moat.

Thorne glared down at an attacker girl through the mist of his vaporizers and almost chuckled as she slipped and fell off of one of the Beastly Battle Axes.

_Today wasn't so bad... _

**Caw. Caw. Caw, caw.**

_Oh yes. There was that._

The blue clad alchemist let his gaze rise up and settle heavily, upon the black raven sitting on the castle wall.

It had been there all day, from what he could gather. Watching.

Just... watching.

It eyed him right back, unafraid of his steely grey eyes.

_Strange..._

"Oy! Bird!" Thorne shouted, letting off a flume of vapour in the direction of the bird. "Get lost! Shoo!"

Kook let off a chuckle from his perch with the Aqualiser. "Gee Thorny! Why you getting so worked up? It's only a bird."

Thorne glared up at his green hair companion. "Really? I thought it was a glowing Jack-O-Lantern!"

Shaiden looked over to see what was making her brother so worked up. "Really Thorne? A bird is annoying you? Just by sitting there?"

"So what? He does that already!" Thorne growled back, gesturing towards Kook with a gloved hand.

Shaiden smirked at her brother's expression and leaned against the Splatzooka, watching the raven.

It cawed again before spreading it's wings and launching itself from the wall and into the air.

Shaiden smiled briefly, watching the bird swoop around the moat gracefully with a few powerful strokes of its wings.

And in another instant, the momentarily graceful bird swooped down viciously, claws spread and full on attacked the person in its path of flight.

Which just so happened to be Thorne.

The alchemist lurched back, away from his attacker and batted at the bird with a gloved hand. The vaporizers clattered to the ground, as Thorne continued to swat at the Raven, who managed to get both sets of claws buried in his blue tipped Mohawk.

Shaiden's ninja reactions lurched into gear, after being momentarily frozen in shock. With a swift hand she loaded the Splatzooka and fired one shot in the general direction of the Raven, while Kook began yelling and throwing goo-grenades.

The Raven let go with a cackling cry, and flew off with two claw-full's of Thorne's hair.

Shaiden held fire and listened, while Kook threw another grenade for good measure.

"Oy!" Thorne yelled, waving his fist in the air and rubbing his injured head with the other hand. "Stupid bird ripped out my hair!"

"Shh!" Shaiden scolded, making her way around the moat wall, towards her brother.

"Why should I?!" Thorne growled, "You saw what that mangy thing just did to me!" He held his gloved hand in front of his face to inspect it. "I'm surprised I'm not bleeding!"

"Actually mate, you are!" Kook jeered, materialising beside them and gesturing to a cut on Thorne's forehead.

The alchemist bared his teeth at the bird and touched the cut gingerly, muttering something about the stupidity of birds...

"For pities sake! Will the two of you shut up..." Shaiden growled at them.

Both Kook and Thorne looked up as if to protest, but the ninja's eyes were not on them, but on something in the distance.

"Can you hear that?" Shaiden breathed, her brown eyes fixated on...something.

"What?" Thorne asked, trying to look at the same thing, but to no avail.

His sister took hold of his arm with one hand and pointed off into the forest that bordered the edge of the kingdom. "There..."

Thorne watched in surprise, and even Kook watched as a cloaked figure on horse-back rode off into the thick tree line.

The three defenders stood in silence for a while, before Kook spoke what each were thinking. "Do you think... we were being watched?"

The blue ninja narrowed her eyes.

Kook began to pace nervously "Do you think that the bird...? What if it was a spy? Do you think we'll get attacked? Do we tell Knightriss and Madeva?"

"Oh just shut up!" Thorne growled, grabbing the bird by the shirt and shaking him. "There's no way we can tell for sure!"

"No we can't." Shaiden said coldly, turning around. "But there is one thing I can say for certain."

"What?" Kook asked in puzzlement.

"We just gave the last three attackers a free pass around the moat..."

* * *

_The cloaked figure rode off into the woods with a chuckle and the steady sound of hoof-beats on the damp forest floor._

_"They're such fools! So fun to play with... I don't even care what my brother says, that crown is up for the taking." The rider laughed again- a harsh high laugh that betrayed their gender as female. _

_The girl directed the horse around a sharp bend in the track with a single brisk tug of the bridle. The black gypsy horse stallion beneath her, gave a snort and a harsh shake of his head. _

_"Easy boy..." His rider soothed, slowing them to a trot and patting his mane with a gloved hand. She stole a glance back at the castle in the distance- bright sapphires glaring out from under a hood, fist clenched around a piece of blue tipped hair in her hand. "Tonight... we attack..." _

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**So...?**

**Want more? :3**

**Let me know :D**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey Everyone! :D**

**Thanks for those two who reviewed ;) Have a cookie :3 **

**There was also a question from ~BlueJay026 which I'll answer at the end of this chapter. And since I don't have anything much to say here, lets get to it! **

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**Chapter 2**

"...Are you absolutely sure that that's what you saw?" Knightriss demanded.

The blue ninja nodded, standing to attention beside the long wooden table in front of her boss. "Positive. We were being watched by someone. Whether it was a spirit or a real person we don't know."

"Don't tell us what we don't know girl. Tell us what we do know!" Madeva shouted, her voice high and agitated- enough to make Skabb and Tinkor cover their ears in pain.

"Well..." Shaiden sighed. "The one thing we do know is that it's not completely impossible for a human to also be a bird..." Her voice trailed off as she gestured towards Kookaburra, who was pacing around the room like a hunted rabbit. "Kook is proof enough of that."

The green haired defender kept jumping at the shadows and eventually resorted to pulling down his goggles and diving onto the worn sofa in-between Gildar- who had been brushing his hair- and Vane- who was licking his hands to ensure that not a bit of his chicken mayo sandwich escaped his stomach.

Shaiden sighed and shook her head at the birds antics.

It might not have been the best idea to tell the leading defenders straight away, but the ninja guessed it was inevitable with Kook flapping around the castle in panic.

Thorne had disappeared almost instantaneously upon them coming inside- most likely into his lab. Faetal, Ballista and Crocness were keeping the child attackers at bay in the dungeon, so they were absent from the defenders meeting.

It had been surprisingly easy to get everyone to sit down and listen, but then again it was lunchtime.

**Everyone **loved lunchtime.

Well- everyone except Thorne.

Shaiden frowned at her own thoughts. Her brother didn't seem to love much in the world, did he.

Apart from maybe his lab... and chemistry. And her- to an extent. Thorne would protect her with his life if it came to it. And that was enough, she guessed.

And it was at that same moment that her brother stormed into the room with a face like thunder.

Shaiden eyed him warily, trying to figure out what the problem was. She eyed the cut on his forehead from earlier.

He'd obviously cleaned it since- it was far less bloody than it had been and he'd stuck a few steri-strips on it for good measure.

The other defenders froze momentarily, their eyes flicking to Shaiden for confirmation that they could continue to breathe.

No. That wasn't the problem.

Shaiden had a growing suspicion that whatever the problem was, had something to do with the book her brother was holding in his hand.

Shaiden flicked her eyes at them, just as Thorne slammed down the heavy leather cased book onto the table, raising a cloud of dust.

"Well someone's been busy..." Knightriss commented coolly.

"Heh...You'll never guess what I found out while the rest of you were sitting here." Thorne growled at Knightriss, flicking open the book to a specific marked page.

"What is it?" Shaiden asked tentatively, moving closer.

Kook, Vane and Gildar hid themselves in the sofa cushions, preparing themselves for the worst.

Madeva made her way over to stand beside Knightriss.

"There." Thorne said, pointing to a passage of the book with one gloved finger. "That must have been who it was."

Shaiden frowned at him, pulling the book closer so she could read it.

"It talks about a family of Bird entities." Thorne explained, to those who couldn't read the book.

Vane, Kook, Gildar, Skabb, and Tinkor blinked at him.

Thorne narrowed his eyes and mentally face-palmed. "A person who can turn into a bird. With, you know... magic."

The faces of the other defenders lit up in understanding, accompanied by a chorus of "Oh"'s.

Thorne internally sighed.

""There are only about 3 of those families left in the world. It says there's a family of Bird entities that live in the Castle Of the Mountain Keep. The King of the Bird entities named Orion and his wife Elinor." He paused and frowned, trying to remember the passages of the book that his mind had so easily devoured earlier. "They had two kids... a girl and a boy..."

"Just like you and Shaiden then!" Kook grinned, poking his head out from between the sofa cushions.

Thorne's icy glare made the birds head shrink back down until only his green hair was visible- like a tuft of abnormal grass.

"The girl was crown princess to ALL her father's lands!" Madeva continued, quoting lines from the actual book and waving her arms around like some sort of bad magician. "But she was a mischievous little sucka, constantly goin' walkabout and into the kingdoms of others!"

"She inherited the power of the bird entities from her father." Thorne interrupted- throwing an icy glare at the female dragon-slayer and taking control of his story once again. "So, she was able to change into the bird she was named for- Raven."

"But her brother didn't possess the power of the entities..." Shaiden murmured, her eyes scanning the book.

"Precisely." Thorne nodded. "So he couldn't inherit. No one could understand how that was even possible, since his mother was a dove entity, and his father was a crow entity."

The defenders exchanged glances and began muttering about the possibility that it was the daughter that was causing mischief in the castle.

It made them smile- a child of their lands was a child, and could be dealt with by using other means.

However if any of them had been watching Shaiden at that moment, they would have seen her expression of amusement fade and change into something much darker. "Thorne..."

"So what'cha saying," Madeva spoke over her, "Is that we just need to catch the little tyke in the act and deliver her back to her parents."

Thorne nodded. "Much easier than launching a full blown war with a bunch of stupid birds..." His eyes flicked over and settled on Kook's. "No offence."

"Guys." Shaiden spoke again, her voice louder this time.

"Well err, if this is all sorted I'm gonna make another sandwich..." Vane announced, wiping his hands on his trousers and standing up.

Madeva and Knightriss were discussing just how to catch a bird, and Kook kept interjecting with his nonsense.

"Guys!" Shaiden growled, with more force this time, so that the others were forced to take notice of her.

Vane sat down abruptly, as did Madeva and Knightriss.

Thorne turned around in puzzlement to see what had his sister so worked up. "Shaiden?"

The blue ninja sighed, trailing her hand down the worn pages. "It can't be her Thorne..."

"But all the evidence points to-" Thorne argued immediately, before his sister cut him off, reading passages directly from the book.

"_'For a time the Kingdom thrived. They had a wise king and a promising young heir to the throne. Even the prince showed potential, far above his given status.  
Orion employed the help of great defenders, including the once shunned Animalians and peace reigned over the Kingdom for a great many years..._

_But this __**Great Kingdom**__ was not so strong as it appeared, and was attacked to breaking point numerous times, before the Prince and Princess were even into their teenage years..._

_And on one such attack, the kingdom's luck had run out._

_Orion stayed behind to aid the battle for his kingdom, while Elinor and his people fled, taking his children with them._

_In the panic of the kingdom being destroyed around them, the people fled in any direction they saw fit. Any place that wasn't a pit of rubble, or alight with flames._

_And it was somewhere in this struggle that Queen Elinor and her children were lost..."_

The defenders had gone eerily quiet.

Thorne's legs felt strangely weak underneath him, and he sat down before they gave out on him.

"_'Upon the battles end, the surviving townspeople and villagers joined together to see what they could reclaim from the ashes of their kingdom._

_The search was stopped each time a body was discovered, to allow appropriate time for mourning._

_Upon the discovery of Queen Elinor, the hearts and minds of all the villagers were shattered. And her death, coupled with the death of King Orion tore great welts in what was left of their people._

_There was no sign of either child, and so the people feared the worst._

_There was hope- in that the children's newly appointed guardian was missing also, and she was much easier to track, being an Animalian._

_All hope was lost however, upon the discovery of Princess Raven's tiara- whole and complete, albeit covered in a great deal of blood._

_The search was terminated- their Princess was lost along with her brother. There would be no happy ending. _

_The tiara was locked in the vault along with Orion's Crown, and was sealed tight. _

_The villagers scavenged what they could from the ruins of their city and cleaned it up as best they could. _

_To this day, they travel around as a camp. Forever moving within a kingdom they once considered to be safe. _

_For they are The Camp of the Rising Sun.'_"

Shaiden shut the book sharply and let it drop onto the table. "So that bird we've been seeing. It can't be the princess. Because the princess is dead." Her voice was cold, her eyes shining with unshed tears at a tale of old.

They other defenders sat in silence, trying to absorb what Shaiden had just told them.

"Skabb is... sad..." the barbarian sniffed, wiping at the side of his nose.

Tinkor had his face buried in Vane's shoulder, and the archer was patting his back awkwardly while the inventor sobbed out his misery.

Thorne still sat on the floor, his face a picture of puzzlement.

"Do you know what's funny about all of this Thorne?" Shaiden said, with a false laugh. "If that... Princess had been alive, she would have been the same age as you."

The alchemist opened his mouth, as if to argue back- but no words would come.

He had been wrong- yes- horribly wrong. _If only he'd read a little further..._

And though he wouldn't admit it to their faces, he felt terrible...

"GUYS!" Faetal yelled, rushing into the room and stopping in the middle- oblivious to the glum expressions on each defenders face, or the fact that Tinkor was still crying into Vane's arm.

"What is it?" Knightriss asked, her voice brisk and business like as usual- as though she was trying to forget all she had just learnt.

"The castle's under attack!" Faetal panted. "It's that bird-person again. And this time, it's brought a... friend..."

* * *

_The raven settled on its perch above the dungeon stairs. It was perfect. _

_Those idiots couldn't defend a crown, even if the castle had arms and whacked attackers off itself!_

_She could hear her friend now- taunting them. She was good at that. _

_The raven let out a caw of glee and picked up the pretty Redstone amulet beside her. _

_All she needed now, was to be patient- just like her brother had told her._

_And she... was endlessly patient._

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**A.N.~ **

**Well... that came out far more depressing than I intended it to. Hehe... But I did have to get past that point somehow, however depressing it may sound, its pretty essential for good old character development. **

**~BlueJay026- T (Means: Teen, so as a clue this may include either _blood_ or swearing- definitely not swearing XD) I don't want to give too much away at the moment (haha), and I might eventually change the rating anyway. We'll see. **

**Anyway, next chapter we finally get to meet my OC's properly! **

**Have a nice day, and if you're extra lucky I might update twice today!**

**(A.N.2~ Does anyone else find it impossible to write as Madeva in character without speaking like her XD That's the only way I can imagine what she might say!)**


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